'Cheers' for England and St George

It's one of the more depressing signs of our times that celebrating St George's Day has become a bit shady, a bit frowned upon. Without wanting to go all Daily Fail and "it's political correctness gone mad", there is something sad about the way that we now seem to face a polarised choice - either:

(a) get all red-faced and shouty about immigrants taking our workers' jobs, call for Maggie (or Winston) to come back and save us, put a few windows in and end up ticketed for D&D - "£80 and we'll call it quits, sir or madam, no, it won't go on your criminal record but it will show up on CRB checks, but don't you worry about it, just think how much money we've saved by you not having the chance to explain in court";
or
b) quietly ignore the whole thing, forgetting any sense of fondness for our country and the good things about it, and tutting and muttering about anyone who's so crass as to mention the day or fly a flag or otherwise be so regrettably recidivist. Give 'em a ticket for something. The country could use another £80.

Yes, I exaggerate. My middle name is hyperbole. (Remember Python: "He used...sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and...satire.") Never mind, I've been drinking beer. Let me give you a good reason for that.

Acquire and read this book.

I have no kick-back on this, I just think the book should be widely read. Dan Kieran talks about 'Albion' and wonders where it went; in political terms he's not working the 'left or right' axis so much as the 'libertarian or authoritarian' one. His original intention was to go out and break as many daft laws as he could but things changed during his research as he became increasingly aware of the erosion of civil liberties that has taken place over recent years. A historian friend of his talks about Hogarth's famous picture Gin Lane:

"It's not widely realized that it is part of a pair. Gin Lane is bad but the other one, Beer Street, is good. [...] People think Hogarth was having a go at alcohol in general with Gin Lane, but gin was what was causing all the problems, not beer. Everything in Beer Street is paradise. The only one not having a good time in Beer Street is the pawnbroker, because beer is part of the true English birthright. [...] the rights of the True-Born Englishman are to drink beer and defy authority. To defy tyranny whatever its guise."

And Dan Kieran himself says:

"Being told that being English actually means being part of an inclusive mongrel race that has always thrived on diversity, and that your right and duty as a member of that race is to stand up against tyranny whatever its guise - government, corporations or anyone who tries to exploit you or take away your freedom - and drink large amounts of beer (rather than gin, or its modern equivalents, alcopops, flavoured vodka and those luminous shots you can buy in dodgy nightclubs), was all of great comfort to me. That was an idea of national identity I could get on board with."

Me too. And so can Mrs QO, whom I nagged for ages to read the book until she did, and she even took her hands off her pint to read a bit back to me this afternoon, which I think tells you a lot. We sat in the sunshine, drank beer, and hoped for better things for our country. Sadly, the outcome of the discussion was that as soon as we can manage it, we'll escape either to France or Islay. Probably Islay, as we happen to know there's a couple of English lads brewing great beer there, and it's far enough away from Westminster to be a bit more wholesome.

But to the point. Yes, there was one, originally, though I grant you it's taken a while to emerge. Go out tomorrow and drink beer, resist oppression, embrace diversity and be happy. If that's how we might celebrate St George's Day, I don't see any harm in it.